A pack of alpacas

Author: Kelly Janis

When was the last time you petted an alpaca?

On Sept. 29, Maple View Farm Alpacas in Brandon, Vt. held one of several annual open houses to allow visitors to satiate their curiosity about these fuzzy, little-known creatures who roam more than 45 farms in Vermont alone.

According to a guide to "breeding for superior genetics" distributed by Maple View Farm, "the alpaca is a member of the South American Camelid family, which also includes llamas, guanacos and vicunas." Until a 1998 agreement between the United States and South American governments curtailed the practice and limited breeding to stock already housed domestically, these gentle, non-aggressive natives of Peru, Chile and Bolivia were imported from their home countries for the economic benefits imbedded in their fibers and ability to be shown and bred.

Ed Bratton - who births, raises, breeds, buys, sells and boards alpacas on the 100-acre farm he owns with his wife, Deb - stumbled upon alpacas by chance.

"I was on a business trip, coming home on an airplane one Friday afternoon, when somebody had left behind an alpaca magazine, and I just started looking at it," Bratton said. "I took it home and showed my wife and said, 'have you ever seen one of these things?' and she said, 'I have no idea what that is.' So we looked through the magazine and found that there was a farm within 60 miles of us, and we went and saw the animals."

The Brattons were instantly smitten with the alpacas.

"We spent three years going to shows, going to seminars, visiting farms and deciding that we were going to move here, build a farm and raise alpacas," Bratton said.

On the whole, the Brattons' 25 alpacas are active, gregarious creatures.

"When they first come out in the morning, they run and they jump and they just have a great old time," Bratton said.

Other times, however, they are far more finicky and reserved.

"Alpacas are more like cats than like dogs," Bratton said. "If they want to stick their nose right in your face, they will. But if you want to touch them, your arm is just that much too short."

The Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association sanctions numerous events nationwide. While there is a show - in which alpacas are judged based on movement, appearance and fiber quality - virtually every weekend, the Brattons choose to attend only four each year, traveling as far as Pittsburgh to showcase their animals.

"The rules [of the shows] are that you can't brush them, you can't bathe them, you can't comb them, you can't trim them," Bratton said. "So they stay the way they are by taking dust baths."

According to Bratton, these dust-bathing critters are becoming a sensation. "Every year, several new farms pop up," he said.

Maple View Farm capitalizes on the surging demand not only by stocking an on-site store complete with garments, accessories, yarns and toys made from the animal's luxurious fiber, but by selling alpacas to farmers in several states. Such sales can be quite lucrative - the range of value for breeding females, for instance, hovers been $12,000 and $35,000, on average.

For the Brattons however, raising alpacas is not solely a matter of business. Bratton recounted an occasion on which another couple approached him and his wife while they were exiting the ring at a show and offered to pay $50,000 dollars on the spot for their most prized alpaca.

"We turned them down," Bratton said. "We really love the animals."

The alpacas also furnish the Brattons with a host of playful diversions.

"On very hot, humid days, we get the hose out," Bratton said. "And they're just like kids. They'll come running from the far end of the pasture and try to crowd each other out of the way if they think they're going to get hosed down."

In spite of these lighthearted scenes, tending to the alpacas is often a time-and labor-intensive process.

"We're up fairly early," Bratton said. "We get up in the morning and we get them fed, we get them outside, we get them watered, we clean the barn up and then we basically leave them out in the fields and go to work. And then late in the day - usually four, five, six, somewhere in there - we come home, we bring them in, we feed them, we get them in their pens at night and we clean up."

This process is elongated by the Brattons' desire to accommodate their stock as cautiously as possible.

"You don't have to keep alpacas inside, but because we have some pretty active coyotes, we choose to lock them in the barn at night," Ed Bratton said. "We're generating some of our own work, but we don't mind doing that. Because at two in the morning when the coyotes are howling, we know where our animals are."